50-year Term Given In Plea Agreement

Faced with the possibility of a death sentence and three life terms, a West Palm Beach man Friday struck a deal with prosecutors that will instead put him in prison for the next 50 years.

Even with time off for good behavior, Raymond Berry, 33, is likely to remain behind bars for several decades after pleading guilty to second-degree murder charges and charges from two sexual assaults.

``I don`t see how he could possibly get out before he`s 70 years of age,`` said prosecutor Gay Broome, who said the state accepted the deal because it might have had a hard time proving a first-degree murder charge against Berry.

An official of the county`s Victim-Witness Aid Program told Palm Beach Circuit Judge William C. Owen that friends and relatives of the two victims consider the 50-year sentence to be a fair one.

Berry, who has a lengthy record of violent crimes, had been charged with the May 1, 1984, rape and killing of a 51-year-old Lake Park antique shop owner and with sexually assaulting and kidnapping a 22-year-old West Palm Beach woman three weeks earlier.

He could have been sentenced to death in the electric chair for the murder, or to life in prison for each of the rapes and the kidnapping, had he been convicted.

Under a plea agreement approved by the West Palm Beach judge, Berry instead will serve 40 years for second-degree murder and rape involving the antique shop owner, Melba Thompson, and an additional 10 years for raping the younger woman. He will receive credit for the year he already spent in jail.

``We chose the certainty of what will virtually be a life sentence (over) the obvious uncertainties of a trial and parole,`` Broome said after the judge approved the deal.

Berry was arrested last May in connection with the first sexual assault. Authorities eventually gained a confession in the murder and rape of Thompson.

The victim of the first attack accepted a ride from Berry in Riviera Beach on April 9, 1984. Berry admitted in court Friday to driving the woman into a wooded area, threatening her with a wrench and raping her. He left the woman tied up with her own clothes, but she eventually freed herself.

On May 1, Berry entered Thompson`s shop, sexually assaulted her with a blunt object and then stabbed her to death. Thompson was discovered by her business partner, and died nine hours later.

Broome said authorities connected Berry to the murder because they knew he had done carpentry work in the shop, but conceded the state`s case was not strong.